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A46947
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An essay concerning Parliaments at a certainty, or, The kalends of May by Samvel Johnson.
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Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing J826; ESTC R11823
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20,302
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52
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AN ESSAY CONCERNING PARLIAMENTS AT A CERTAINTY OR The KALENDS of MAY. BY SAMUEL JOHNSON Vice Cotis fungar Horace LONDON Printed for the Author MDCXCIII TO THE Barons and Commons Of ENGLAND In Parliament Assembled May it please your Honours YOU either knew more of the Matter contained in these Papers or less or the same If you knew more I should be glad to see it in your Laws which you mean to Establish Or which is better in your Declaration of the Constitution If not no Body can find fault with my poor Office of bearing a Light but they that have very ill Eyes I am the known Servant of You and of my whole Country Samuel Johnson AN ESSAY Concerning Parliaments at a Certainty CHAP. I. Shewing that the Frequent meeting of Parliaments is the Basis of our Constitution and the True of the Government and that the Intermission of them is Inconsistent with the Body of the English Law IF a Man would have an entire View of the English Constitution he must have recourse to those Able and Approved Authors who have written Purposely on that Subject For it is a Rule Parva est Authoritas aliud Agentis and what is said by the by is of less Weight than what is professedly handled provided it have been Maturely considered by a Competent Judge of that Matter of which he treats And in this kind we do not find a Man better Qualified than the Learned Lord Chancellor Fortescue who was an Aged Lawyer and had been Lord Chief Justice of England when he wrote his Book de laudibus Legum Angliae which was on purpose in a Dialogue with the Prince of Wales to inform him of the Nature of the English Constitution and to let him know by what Sort of Laws the Realm in which he was to Succeed his Father was to be Governed And therefore he adjures him over and over again to Addict himself to the Understanding of the Laws of his Father's Realm wherein he was to Succeed Fol. 16. a. and having shewed the Prince the Different nature of Reahns where a King could Tyrannize and where he could not being restrained by Politick Laws Fol. 26. b. Rejoyce therefore says he most Excellent Prince and be glad That the Law of the Realm in which you are to succeed is Such for it shall exhibit and minister to You and your People no small Security and Comfort But out of that excellent Book which I believe no way Warped for then it must lean towards the Court partly because of the Flattery and Officiousness which is too often found in Dialogues with Princes and partly because the Author was retained on the Crown side by the Greatest Office in England I will confine my Self to those Passages only which relate to the Frequency of Parliaments And the first I meet with is in his 18th Chap. concerning the Statutes of England in these words Et si Statuta haec tantâ solemnitate prudentiâ edita efficaciae tantae quantae conditorum cupiebat intentio non esse contingant Concitò reformari ipsa possunt 〈◊〉 non sine Communitatis Procerum Regni illius assensu quali ipsa primitùs emanarunt And if these Statutes fall short of their intended Efficacy though devised with such great Solemnity and Wisdom of Parliament they may very Quickly be Reformed but not without the Assent of the Commons and Peers of the Realm which was their Source from the beginning Now I only desire that the word Concitò may be taken notice of which is the quickest Word that can be imagined and shews that our Parliaments were always at Hand and the whole Passage shews for what Wise and Just Reasons they were so The next Passage is Chap. 53. Fol. 129. a. Neque leges Angliae frivolas infructuosas permittunt inducias Et siquae in Regno illo dilationes in Placitis minùs accommodae fuerint usitatae in Omni Parliamento amputari illae possunt etiam Omnes Leges Aliae in Regno illo usitatae cum in aliquo Claudicaverint in Omni Parliamento poterunt Reformari Quo recte concludi potest quod omnes Leges Regni illius Optimae sunt in actu vel potentiâ quo faciliter in actum duci poterunt in Essentiam realem Ad quod faciendum quoties aequitas id poposcerit singuli Reges ibidem Sacramento astringuntur solemniter praestito tempore receptionis Diadematis sui Neither do the Laws of England allow in Law-suits frivolous and fruitless Delays And if in this Kingdom Delays in Pleas which are not to the purpose should be used they may in every Parliament be cut off Yea and all other Laws used in the Realm when they Halt or are Defective in any point they may in every Parliament be set to Rights Whereupon it may be rightly Concluded that the Laws of England are the Best in the World either Actually or Potentially since they can easily be brought into Act or Being To the performance whereof as often as Equity so requireth Every King is bound by an Oath solemnly taken at the time of receiving his Crown Out of this last Passage I will not trouble you with any more Observations than these First That Parliaments are the Remedy against Delays in Law Proceedings But how if Parliaments themselves should be Delayed Secondly That if any or all our Laws should Halt and our Parliaments at the same time should be Crippled too and not able to come together they could not help one another In the next and last Chapter of that Book Fol. 129. b. the Prince immediately replies Princeps Leges illas nedum bonas sed optimas esse Cancellarie ex prosecutione tuâ in hoc Dialogo certissimè deprehendi Et siquae ex illis meliorari deposcant id Citissimè fieri posse Parliamentorum ibidem Formulae nos erudiunt Quo realiter potentialiterve Regnum illud semper praestantissimis Legibus gubernatur Nec tuas in hâc concionatione doctrinas futuris Angliae Regibus inutiles fore Conjicio dum non delectent regere legibus quae non delectant Says the Prince My Lord Chancellor by the Tenour of your Discourse in this Dialogue I am throughly satisfied that the Laws of England are not only Good but the Best in the World And in case any of the Laws want to be mended or improved the Rules of the English Parliaments do instruct us That that may be done forthwith Whereupon the Realm of England is always Governed by the very best Laws either in Reality or in Possibility And besides I conjecture that the Doctrines that have been held forth in this Dialogue will be very useful to the Kings of England that shall come hereafter since no Body likes to Govern by Laws which they do not like After all these Lauds and Praises of the English Laws which the Chancellor has stuck all over with Stars quite through his Book and has made their Perfection to Center in this
that they either Are or Soon may be the Best in the World because in case they labour 〈◊〉 any defect that Fault may be Immediately amended by a wise Senate What if that wise Senate be no where to be found or is at no Certainty It is then Impossible to render the Chancellor's Latin into English For the speedy Perfection of the English Laws which the Prince and he are agreed is Concitò Citissimè may be rendred either at the Four Years end or the Twelve Years end or at the World's end For so I am satisfied it was meant after a Ten Year's Interval of Parliaments if the Herb woman at Edinburgh had not thrown her Cricket-stool at the Arch-Bishop's Head And so Dr. Heylin I remember does not so much acknowledge that Secret as Justify it It is in his little Book of Observations upon Hammond L'Estrange's History of the Reign of K. Charles I. Says Hammond upon the Dissolution of that wise Parliament in 28. to whom we owe the Petition of Right All wise Men concluded that there was an end of all Parliaments Yes says Heylin so they might well the King having been troubled with their Impertinencies and having an Example in France before his Eyes where Parliaments have been so much discontinued that it is become a Proverb amongst them Voyons le Jeu de Trois Estats as the strangest Sight which can be seen in an Age. I have not the Book now by me but I will be answerable for the Substance of this Quotation having retained this Passage in my Head above these Five and Twenty Years I can only touch several other Arguments which might be enlarged upon The High Court of Parliament is the Dernier Resort in this Kingdom and if that fail there may be a failure of the English Justice Bracton says of an Ambiguous or Difficult Cause Respectuetur ad magnam Curiam but unless Parliaments be Frequent such a Cause is Adjourned to a long Day Every Body that understands the English Constitution knows that it is exactly the same as it was laid down in Parliament 8 Ed. 4. by the Lord Chancellour that then was You have it in Sir Robert Cotton's Abridgment of the Rolls in the Tower p. 682. in these words He then declared the three Estates to comprehend the Governance of this Land the Preheminence whereof was to the King as chief the second to the Lords and Bishops and the third to the Commons Now if we are at a loss or uncertainty about our Parliaments we are at a loss or uncertainty about two Thirds of our Government But I will say no more upon this Head intending to shew in the following Chapters how the matter of Parliaments stood in former Ages CHAP. II. Shewing how Parliaments stood in King Alfred's Time and afterwards I Chuse to begin with this Period of Time in King Alfred's Reign because we have clear Law and History to shew how Parliaments stood in his Time and what Law was Ordained concerning them for ever It is in the Mirror of Justices which as my Lord Coke says in his Preface to his Tenth Reports was written in the Saxon Times and it appears by the Book it self But several things were added to it by a Learned and Wise Lawyer Andrew Horne who lived in the Reign of Ed. 1. and Ed. 2. Antiquity enough for a Book we desire no more for we are sure that no Common-wealths Man had the Penning of it The words of the Myrror are these p. 10. Pur le estate del Royalme fist l' Roy Alfred assembler les Comitees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pur Usage Derpetuelle que a deur foits per l' An on pluis-sovent pur mestier en tempts de peace se assemblerout a 〈◊〉 pur Parliamenter sur le guidement del people d' Dieu coment gents se garderent de peche 〈◊〉 en quiet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 droit per certaine usages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Der cel estate se sierent plusiours 〈◊〉 per 〈◊〉 Royes jesque al 〈◊〉 Roy Les quells Dideinances sont disuses per meins sages 〈◊〉 put default que 〈◊〉 ne sont my mise en escript 〈◊〉 publies en Certeine For the Good Estate of the Realm King Alfred caused the Counties to Assemble and Ordained it for a Perpetual Usage that at Two Times yearly or oftner if need were in Time of Peace they should Assemble at London to sit in Parliament for the Guidance of God's People how the Nation should keep themselves from Sin live in Quiet and receive Right by certain Usages and holy Judgments By this Estate were made many Ordinances by several Kings down to the King that is now which says the Margin was Edward the First which Ordinances are disused by some that are not so wise and for want that they are not put into Writing and published in Certain In this Passage the Two Times a Year seem to be Stationary the Calling a Parliament Oftner than Two Times a Year if need were is plainly intended for Contingencies of State and when the Ardua Regni or Extraordinary Affairs of the Nation require an Extraordinary Parliament I say and will make out to all the World by Laws and Declarations of Parliament that the King has a Power of calling Parliaments within the Law But I never did nor never will say to the end of my Life that the King can hinder Parliaments Appointed by Law These Frequent Parliaments were to meet at London in Time of Peace We see then what has interrupted our Parliaments both as to Time and Place For London was after in the hands of the Dane and Foreigners Wars and Tribulations came on But the best way is to let an Author explain himself which the Mirror does in telling us likewise the Abusions of the Law or the Contrarieties and Repugnancies to Right or as he calls it the Fraud and Force which is put upon Law This way of writing Law is the best that can be invented for it is the way of Preaching by Positive and Negative which is a two-edged Sword and cuts both ways And the Truth of it is the Negative part of the Law which lies in a little Compass oftentimes teaches us a world of the Positive For instance the 33 Articles in the Roll 1 H. 4. m. 20. which K. Richard the 2d solemnly acknowledged of his own Male-administration do give us more light into the Constitution than a Book of six times the bigness could do But to come to the Abusions of Law which are in the Mirror p. 282. He says that the First and Sovereign Abusion is for the King to be beyond the Law whereas he ought to be subject to it as is contained in his Oath Though the second is my Business which is in these words 2. Abusion est que ou les Parlaments se duissent faire pur le salvation des Almes de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ceo a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deur foits per An la ne se font ils 〈◊〉 rarement 〈◊〉 a la 〈◊〉 le Roy